Full sleeve tattoo on an upper arm and forearm in neo-traditional style, showing a snarling brown bear head against a starry night sky with green and yellow swirls.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Colour sleeve with bear and night sky

Neo-trad · Shoulder · Mixed · Photo

A full arm sleeve runs from the shoulder down the forearm. A snarling brown bear head with bared teeth sits at the centre, set against a deep blue night sky filled with yellow stars and clouds. Further down, green and yellow swirling shapes frame a grey, shaded figure, with bold outlines and rich colour throughout.

Neo-trad Shoulder Upper arm Forearm Bear Night sky Star Cloud Swirl Sleeve

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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I know you think I've lost the plot taking the old Sand Wash road in the dark, but the petrol gauge was honest and the motel in Calvary Wells was shut for the season. So I pulled over at the cattle grid, killed the headlights and sat on the bonnet with a flask of your godawful tea. That was when the bear came down out of the mesquite.

He was bigger than the van. Brown as wet bark, muzzle lifted, teeth bared, not at me exactly but at the sky, as if the stars were a rival he meant to see off. I didn't move. Mum always said never run from anything with a longer memory than you, and I suspect a bear qualifies. He snuffed the air, sniffed my flask, then turned and walked straight into the dust the wind kept lifting off the road, like he was wading into a river.

Here is the strange part. Once he'd gone, the sky seemed to hold its breath. The stars came out thicker, yellow as lamp-glow, the road ahead went silver, and a green swirl of light rolled over the ridge like weather. I counted nine shooting stars before I gave up and drove on. Nobody will believe me, so I'm telling you, which I suppose makes you the witness.

I've got a room now, with a window that faces east. I'm going to sleep with the curtains open. If you see a bear on the news from Arizona, don't ring the police. Ring me.

Love, Nell